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Romney's response

Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who is weighing a White House bid, dismissed criticism that he has flip-flopped on the issues of same-sex "marriage" and abortion and has reaffirmed his opposition to both.

"Like the vast majority of Americans, I've opposed same-sex marriage, but I've also opposed unjust discrimination against anyone, for racial or religious reasons, or for sexual preference," Mr. Romney said in an interview with the National Review magazine published online yesterday.

Regarding abortion, Mr. Romney said — as he has said previously — that although he campaigned for governor as pro-choice, he changed his position several years ago after being briefed on embryonic stem-cell research.

"I'm committed to promoting the culture of life," the Massachusetts governor told the conservative magazine. "Like Ronald Reagan and Henry Hyde and others who became pro-life, I had this issue wrong in the past."

The comments were Mr. Romney's first public explanation of his stance on the two key social issues since the publication last week of a 1994 letter — sent in the final weeks of his failed campaign against Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — in which he cited his sensitivity to the concerns of Log Cabin Republicans, the Republican homosexual group.

Kerry's big trip

Sen. John Kerry told reporters in Egypt yesterday that the United States should talk to Syria and Iran.

Mr. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said he thought U.S. policy in the Middle East was in trouble, partly because the United States had failed to listen to people in the region, Reuters news agency reports.